Instruments

At Oslo Børs you can trade bonds, derivatives, equities and other equity instruments on one or more of our market places, including Oslo Børs, Oslo Axess, Merkur Market, Nordic ABM or Oslo Connect.

Shares

Shares can be traded on Oslo Børs, Oslo Axess or Merkur Market. Listed companies are subject to the full requirements of a stock exchange listing on Oslo Børs or Oslo Axess, while the rules and regulations are less comprehensive for companies admitted to trading on Merkur Market. Extensive market surveillance ensures fair and orderly trading on all three marketplaces.

Oslo Børs is regulated as an exchange. At Oslo Børs you can trade all established companies listed at Oslo Børs, included all shares in the OBX index.

Oslo Axess is a fully regulated marketplace for companies who are often in a pre-commercial phase of their life cycle.

Merkur Market is a multilateral trading facility for smaller and medium-sized companies that want simpler access to the capital markets, as well as for large companies that do not satisfy the admission requirements or do not wish to be fully listed on a regulated market.

Preference shares

Preference shares are a separate class of shares. Terms for the preferred shares are described in the company’s articles of association.

Preference shares:

has a preferential right to dividends or other special advantages over the ordinary shares

may have limited or no voting rights

may be limited in time

Preference shares are traded as ordinary shares and are included in the same segment as other shares.

Equity certificates

Equity certificates are a particular type of equity instrument issued by Norwegian savings banks, and were previously known as primary capital certificates. Equity certificates have marked similarities to shares. The differences between equity certificates and shares relate principally to the holders’ rights to the issuer's assets and the way in which equity certificate holders can exercise influence on a savings bank's corporate bodies. Equity certificates are traded on Oslo Børs and Merkur Market, not Oslo Axess.

Fixed income products

Bonds and certificates can be traded on the regulated market Oslo Børs and the self-regulated marketplace Nordic ABM. Both marketplaces are overseen by Oslo Børs' market surveillance to ensure fair trade.

Utilises the Millennium Exchange trading system, which is a stable and efficient platform

Trading set-up: Fix-trading and FAST / FIX market data

No clearing, only bilateral settlement

Fixed income trading is mainly based on two-sided manual reports, but trading can also takes place within the trading system where members place orders on behalf of their clients for execution. Participants must have fixed income-membership on Oslo Børs or Nordic ABM to trade on the fixed income marketplaces.

Derivatives are financial instruments where the price is derived from an underlying instrument. Derivatives make it possible to earn money not only when markets rise but also when they fall or when prices are stable. Oslo Børs offers trading in both standardised derivatives and non-standardised TM derivatives, also known as OTC derivatives.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) offer the opportunity to invest in a fund that tracks a stock index, for example the OBX index. ETFs can also track different asset classes, such as shares, commodities or currencies, or a basket of underlying asset classes. Risk will vary depending on which asset classes the ETF is linked to, and on the degree to which its investments are leveraged. Management costs are lower for ETFs than for traditional mutual funds, and trading in and out of a position is as easy and inexpensive as trading a common stock, with real-time execution and prices.

An Exchange Traded Note (ETN) is an instrument whose value is tied to the development of a given underlying market. This market can for example be a selection of stocks, an index, or the price of a commodity. ETNs are normally issued by a financial institution, which introduces additional counterparty risk in addition to market risk. ETNs are traded in the secondary market in the same way as common stocks, with real-time bid and ask prices and execution.

A warrant is an option that gives you the opportunity to participate in the market and take on a large exposure by investing a relatively small capital sum. This creates the opportunity for big gains, but also involves big risks. Before you decide to buy any warrant, you should carefully consider the information provided in the issuer's base prospectus as well as the final terms for the particular warrant in question. Oslo Børs offers trading in Plain Vanilla Warrants and Mini Futures within this product group.